The last time he ate or drank anything was Friday. I force fed him today, but he was pretty dehydrated. He has some thyroid problems, and he's 15. Thyroid often masks kidney issues evidently. But he normally drinks a lot. You can NOT be in the bathroom without him sitting on the sink screaming at you to turn on the faucet for him. But today all he did was sniff it and get down.

Bloodwork is 100% normal. Thyroid numbers aren't back yet. They are keeping him overnight to get him hydrated and eating.

Tomorrow, I'm going to pick him up after my morning meeting, then drive him to meet Demo who is going to bring him to our vet for more treatment. He should be home on Tuesday. He's a bastard about getting pills, but we're going to be giving them to him come hell or high water from now on.

Faye is beside herself and has been sitting infront of the food dish yelling for him. He's been her constant companion since the minute she was away from her litter, with the exception of about a week 12 years ago. She's a bit lost.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Took him from the evet to our vet today. He vomited about 4pm yesterday, had diahreah at about 5am today, and ate a little at about 9am. I picked him up around noon, and brought him to the other vet.

His blood work is normal, except his thyroid, which is off the chart. He's not eating or drinking, even on appetite stimulants. He's peeing a lot though, because of the IV. He's awake and alert, and smells like year old socks.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

Still won't eat, and though he's a big cat, he wasn't a fat cat... he's all boney. We are force feeding him a teaspoon of food an hour to try to get things functioning. He hasn't eaten a meal since Friday. He's had IV's and the evet said he ate a little on Monday morning around 9, but everything else has been forced.

I put some catnip on his food, and that got him to lick up a little, but not much. I was hoping he'd get the munchies... no such luck.

Katrina gave me a recipe for hand feeding kittens, that's the next step once the food that is already open is used up.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

What about getting the tapazole compounded into a transdermal gel? That would save you all the stress of having to fight to pill him, and hopefully help to get him more regulated. Have you offered him any a/d to see if he's interested in that? Not really a hill's fan, but a/d seems to tempt a good percentage of them. Or even one of the cheapo/junk food type canned foods? I know you'd rather he get good quality nutrition, but at this point, anything is probably better than nothing, and cats seem to prefer the taste of the junkier foods, probably because they add all sorts of crap to make them taste better, like fast food for us. For added calories, maybe give him some nutrical along with his force feedings? I don't have much personal experience with old, off their food cats, but when I've had foster kittens with URIs who won't eat (usually already scrawny, then when they stop eating, things go downhill fast), I usually syringe feed an a/d / formula / nutrical mixture until they're willing to eat that, then wean them slowly to better food once their appetite is good. Hope he's doing ok!

The vet tried all the Hill's foods, he didn't touch them. I've tried some of the total nasty cheap gross stuff, and he barely sniffed them.

Right now, he's getting beef baby food mixed with water and GNC powdered vitamin supplement for cats. When that's gone, I'm switching to the kitten stuff.

I'm going to pick up some of the nutrical gel tomorrow to put on his feet, since he's grooming a little bit and it will be less stressful for him. I'm getting up every hour tonight to keep putting food into him a little at a time.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

Might not hurt to try the a/d at home again, could be that he was stressed at the vet's and would try at home. Also very easy to syringe feed the ad - if it clogs add a little water, stir, and that will go through almost any syringe.When I worked at the Vet Fancy Feast was a big hit, and cats seemed to be so individual about texture, type, etc, of food...

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

He ate a little on his own this morning. And he's currently in the bathroom with a heating pad, a separate bed, two different foods, diluted chicken broth, and his litter box. Hopefully he's on the mend.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

Have you guys considered a feeding tube? It was the best thing we did with our kitty who had histoplasmosis. I wouldn't do it in all situations, but now that I have done it, I find it's much easier than I expected. It was a lot less stressful for all of us.

Good thoughts for Merlin.

"In these bodies, we will live; in these bodies we will die.Where you invest your love, you invest your life." --Marcus Mumford

He ate some today while we were at work, but hasn't touched anything tonight. I have a bunch of different things out for him to choose from, but he's not interested. I feel really bad about keeping him confined to the bathroom, but after he tried to jump up to where the food is and could barely get his body off the floor, I'm not risking him being loose without one of us right there with him.

I'm make more food to "assist feed" him now.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

We've got some real nasty cat food around here called Almo. It's got pieces of chicken, shrimp, fish... Cats LOVE it. Warm food is often more enticing too. Sometime we forget the powers of dry foods with sick cats - just offer him anything you have around. BBQ chicken without skin/fat, canned tuna or ham, lean cooked hamburger, try whatever meaty stuff you have, you never know what might strike his fancy or just not make him nauseous... At this point, diarrhea post-funky foods is not the biggest concern.

Sounds like the sky high thyroid is making him feel terrible since everything else in the bloodwork is normal, hopefully once the tapazole kicks in properly, he'll feel better. My cat Boulette is hyperthyroid, and I really like the compounded liquid, rather than the transdermal gel, absorption is better and dosage a lot more accurate (especially since he was on 1/8th of tapazole).